FINAL GIRL explores the slasher flicks of the '70s and '80s...and all the other horror movies I feel like talking about, too. This is life on the EDGE, so beware yon spoilers!

Apr 4, 2007

swag

See, this is why conventions are so good: you find items like the complete series Tales From the Darkside on DVD. 4 seasons! 7 discs! 90 episodes! Mama like.

I loooooved this show when it was on back in the day- back in the 1983 day, y'all. And though I'm a little loathe to admit it, something about the music and voiceover at the beginning creeped me out quite a bit. There was always something a little more sinister, a little less goofy about this show than its contemporaries and followers such as Ray Bradbury Theatre, Tales from the Crypt, and Monsters. That could just be me, though- I was young. And hell, if I can be scared by Track of the Moon Beast, I can be scared by anything.

Watching this show as an adult, it's fun to pick out obscure names and faces in each episode, names and faces I didn't know so much as a kid. I've only watched a couple of episodes so far and already I've encountered George Romero (the show's Executive Producer and sometimes writer), Vic Tayback (Vic Tayback, dingy!), Keenan Wynn (that's Digger Barnes #2 on Dallas if you're nasty), Billy Jacoby (Curtis from Bloody Birthday), and Armand Mastroianni (director of He Knows You're Alone). It's a veritable gold mine of stars! If such a thing is possible.

When I was contemplating whether or not to purchase this little box set (the contemplation didn't take long, trust me), I found a curious thing on the back of the case. See if you can find it.

No? Maybe you need a close-up of what's actually the biggest picture on the box:

Umm...that's David and Victoria Beckham. On the box for Tales from the Darkside. I pointed it out to the vendor and asked if there was maybe a Tales anniversary variety show that featured the Spice Girls, one that I was unaware of- the show ended in 1988, after all, when the Spice Girls were, like, four. "Hmm," he replied, "I don't know why that's on there."

I guess they're there to add a Touch of Class. I mean, he is holding a top hat, after all.

13 comments:

...if I can be scared by Track of the Moon Beast, I can be scared by anything.

Yes. Yes, you can. But I can't laugh because I still am a little afraid of Jodie the Pig-Faced Demon from Amityville Horror.

I will always remember the Darkside episode (might be from season 1) about the grandpa who refuses to believe he's dead. He keeps showing up for meals more and more decomposed and mom and grandson have no idea what to do. Then, his grandson basically tricks him into blowing his nose off. Ewwwwwww!

Oh yeah, it's absolutely a bootleg. But still...all the other pictures seems to be taken from episodes of the show or, barring that, at least they're from something horror related. The Beckhams pic is just so...weird, like whoever was designing the package ran out of photos and thought "Eh, fuck it. I'll grab the first one that pops up on People.com and use that!"

Sike...when Jodie's eeeevil red eyes looked at Margot Kidder throught the window, that was it for me.

Trust me, I know how bad Track is, and it wouldn't scare me now (I realllly eed to see it again, though)...but when I was a kid, the scene with the two older people and the blood oozing under the door? Killed me. Killed me!

I almost bought a bootleg of Tales for myself, but opted for some obscure (or just plain unavailable) horror flicks instead. But it's at the top of my convention wish list, along with its geeky sister show, Monsters.

Favorite Darkside episode? Easy, it's one called Hush and it's about a noise eater that gets out of control. Let me know what you think of it, FG!

P.S. This is how much of a nerd-geek-dork I am, I was stoked that there was a bootleg of the series Beyond Westworld. I'm so going to get that!

I don't think many people have heard of Beyond Westworld, there are only five episodes, three of which were actually broadcast. It's basically a series spin-off of Futureworld with 70s style secret agents fighting a robot army from DELOS. I think 70s mainstay Sevren Darden was the heavy. Don't know. I only saw one episode, but man did it leave a scar.

Stacie, hello. I came across your blog looking for links to my blog. I see someone posted an old post I had of the Tales from the Darkside opening theme. Very cool. Your blog looks pretty interesting. I think I shall add you to my blog roll, probably under "Rants & Raves".